Russell Lemerise, 79 and addled by Alzheimer's disease, couldn't stop the other patients at Lawnwood Pavilion, a Fort Pierce mental health and rehabilitation facility, from taking his things, and couldn't tell his wife who was doing it. All he could do was cry to leave.

"He came out looking like a street person," said Lorraine Lemerise, a Stuart resident.

The theft was proof to Lemerise her husband did not belong at Lawnwood Pavilion, where he was taken without her knowledge after being removed from his nursing home under Florida's Baker Act, the law allowing mentally ill people who are dangerous to be taken into custody.

Because mental health agencies that take Baker Act patients usually aren't prepared to treat Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia, Lemerise and other advocates are lobbying to have all dementia patients exempted from the law. But some law enforcement officers and health professionals argue changing the Baker Act could put those patients in even greater danger.

Nearly 9,000 people age 65 or older in Florida were examined under the Baker Act in 2006, the last year for which numbers are available. Alzheimer's patients often are taken under the law after becoming abusive or aggressive in a nursing home or hospital, according to patient advocates.

The Baker Act allows a judge, law enforcement officer or doctor to take someone into custody if they are a danger to themselves or others because of mental illness, which includes dementia under Florida law. People can be isolated for as long as 72 hours while a specialist determines if their condition can be stabilized, usually through medication. If so, they go to a mental health facility for treatment.

This is how Russell Lemerise ended up at Lawnwood Pavilion, one of four Treasure Coast mental health facilities that accept Baker Act patients.

Lorraine Lemerise got a call at 4 p.m. on Aug. 8, 2007, that Russell was being taken away in an ambulance. After two years at The Manors at Hobe Sound, he had gotten into a fight with his roommate, and the nursing home couldn't handle his abusive behavior.

"He was no worse than any of these (Alzheimer's) patients," Lemerise said. "That's what they do. They get aggressive."

Alzheimer's advocates agree the disease causes aggression. But they — and some health officials — argue the Baker Act only makes aggression worse by removing patients from familiar surroundings and putting them into mental health facilities with people potentially more violent than they are.

"Putting Alzheimer's patients in the mental health system — it's not the same," said Mary Barnes with Alzheimer's Community Care, a Treasure Coast nonprofit support organization. "If you put them in the system, it becomes very traumatic, sometimes life-threatening. But to be fair, it's the only system out there."

Law enforcement officers say exempting dementia from the Baker Act might eliminate help for an Alzheimer's patient found alone and without identification.

"Just because they wandered off doesn't mean they committed a crime," Indian River County Sheriff's Capt. Andy Bradley said. "If (the Baker Act) is taken away, I don't know what we would do."

Removing an abusive dementia patient also is necessary sometimes to protect the people around them, said Diane Marcello, a Sarasota speech pathologist who also serves on the board of the American Health Assistance Foundation Alzheimer's Disease Research program.

"By the time someone with Alzheimer's is in a nursing home, they're usually far enough along in the disease that there's nothing we could do for them here beside medication, which the nursing home already should be able to manage," said Susan Bernard, stabilization services director at New Horizons of the Treasure Coast, which also accepts Baker Act patients.

In the case of Russell Lemerise, his wife thinks the Baker Act made his disease worse.

Lemerise got to The Manors in time to see her husband of 60 years taken away on a stretcher. Russell spent three weeks at Lawnwood Pavilion, where aides are not trained to do the basic daily care an Alzheimer's patient requires.

Russell came out unshaven, shoeless and more confused than ever.

He also was branded as more aggressive than the average Alzheimer's patient, which complicated the search for another nursing home. Russell ended up in a Broward County facility, where Lemerise is able to visit only a few times a month.

A former legal clerk, she fills her spare hours writing letters to get the Baker Act changed. Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, and the Department of Elder Affairs have been encouraging, but no legislation has been suggested yet.